Gendered systemic analysis : systems thinking and gender equality in international development

Systemic intervention (Midgley, 2000) and Feminist Systems Thinking (Stephens, 2013a), both branches of Critical Systems Thinking, have been used widely to improve social and organisational systems. According to Midgley (2000), a systemic intervention can be defined as a “…purposeful action by an agent to create change” (113, emphasis original). Building on Midgley’s work, Stephens (2013a) created a non-hierarchical “… framework for feminist systems thinking, as a set of five principles that provide common sense guidelines for applied research and social action…” (8, emaphsis added). Presently, the small amount of gendered systemic research is troubling in a world where no country has achieved gender equality. The purpose of this research is to conduct a participatory systemic intervention working in partnership with a U.S. non-governmental agency in Washington D.C. in the United States, and Nicaragua in Central America, I conducted a feminist systemic intervention in an international development organisation. This study found that a more structured systemic intervention method, currently named Gendered Systemic Analysis, was needed to support stakeholders in identifying potential improvements in their businesses: previous work on Feminist Systems Thinking left too much of a gap between theory and practice. In this research, I follow Midgley’s (2011:11-12) use of ‘method’ as: “as a set of techniques operated in a sequence (or sometimes iteratively) to achieve a given purpose. GSA uses a boundary critique process, which concentrates attention on gender, nature and voices from the margin as a means to create social change. The contribution of this research deepened the understanding of how to empower individuals and groups to engage with systemic thinking and contextualise its theoretical and methodological underpinnings into a local knowledge generating systems leading to more sustainable change

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Inclusive systemic thinking supporting the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda

Exploring the place-based, local responses to the UN sustainable development goals and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that contribute to the building of global governance systems in the Agenda 2030 era

Fluorescent Analysis of Protein Localization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A principal objective of cellular biology is to identify the function of proteins as they interact with their environment. Cellular localization provides context for the function and interactions of proteins. In this study, we seek to identify the localization of three proteins within Saccharomyces cerevisiae through C-terminal green fluorescent protein epitope tagging and subsequent fluorescent microscopy. As 75% of the yeast proteome has been classified, this project seeks to fill the remaining gap in unidentified cellular localization by investigating the proteins fsh3, gid10, and ade13. The analysis of high-resolution localization and comparative phylogenetic data reveals potential cellular environments and protein functions

Using UN women's new evaluation approach: inclusive systemic evaluation - gender equality, environments, marginalised voices for social justice (ISE4GEMS)

The ISE4GEMS, a new approach for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era, requires evaluators to think systemically, systematically and intersectionally while taking an evaluation journey of learning, reflection and conversation for the benefit of gender equality, environments and marginalized voices. ISE4GEMs will be introduced in this participatory workshop supporting a shift how development actors view the process of economic or social development, as well as humanitarian action. A new paradigm is emerging that starts with the premise that each intervention is an opportunity for learning how to influence desired social change towards gender equality, sustainability, human rights and peace. This workshop will benefit anyone interested in learning a new methodology using systems thinking as its theoretical foundation which is practical and flexible. Participants can therefore be beginner/intermediate/advanced and be in any position within their organization

The Application of Little\u27s Law to Enrollment Management: Improving Student Persistence in Part-Time Degree Programs

Little’s Law is applied to enrollment management in part-time degree programs. Using institutional data by program, on number of graduates per year, as well as number of credits taken and number of active students per semester, the calculated average time to graduation is compared to the average flow time predicted by Little’s Law. Despite significant variability among students who enter with varying transfer credits and take varying credits per semester, Little’s Law provides a simple model for measuring program growth trends, student productivity, and persistence to graduation. Implications for marketing, admissions, advising, course scheduling, and curriculum design are discussed

Inclusive System Evaluation: Gender Equality, Environments and Marginalized Voices: a UN Women Guide for empowering voices in the SDG era

This presentation introduces participants to a systemic thinking evaluation guidance, produced by UN Women. The ISE4GEMs is a new approach for the Sustainable Development Goals Era, which due to the many interrelated and interconnected SDGs, requires evaluators to think systemically, systematically and intersectionally. We introduce the GEMs framework - a framework for complex and systemic intersectional analysis which calls to attention culturally appropriate and ethical practices in evaluation planning, conduct, analysis and dissemination phases. The ISE4GEMs seeks to promote social transformation by understanding complex phenomena through a systemic approach and importantly, building evaluation capacity and every stage. The GEMs framework invokes an ethical imperative in the systemic methodological approach to the principles and practices to hear from different voices, values and forms of evidence to promote fairness, equity, accessibility and sustainability. This presentation will discuss both the theory and learned practice of its application with the UN and other global participants

Inclusive systemic evaluation for gender equality, environments and marginalized voices (ISE4GEMs): a new approach for the SDG era

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Office has been promoting the integration of gender equality in evaluations since its inception. However, guidance and practice on how to implement gender-responsive approaches based on local cultural priorities or context has proven challenging. With the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) there is a recognized need for more concrete guidance and tools and the development and testing of different methods and approaches to address this challenge. UN Women Independent Evaluation Office along with Australian and American researchers have responded to this challenge by developing a Guidance for Evaluators for the SDG Era. Introducing the Inclusive Systemic Evaluation (ISE) approach and the Gender Equality, Environments, and voices from the Margins (GEMs) Framework. Shortened to the #ISE4GEMs, this Guidance is an original piece of work that brings together trans-disciplinary evaluation methods through a systemic evaluation approach. The Guide is written in two parts. Important concepts from systems thinking including boundary analysis, emergence, and the difference between systemic and systematic thinking, are introduced in Part A. So too is the importance of the intersectional relationships between each of the GEMs Framework dimensions Gender Equality, Environments, and voices from the Margins. The Guidance encourages evaluation strategies that can co-account for coupled environmental and social changes. 'Environment' is a catch-all terms for ecological systems from pristine to human-made. Gender accounts for the more traditional category of 'man' and 'woman' but opens up the meanings to account for transgender and multiple identities. The 'voices from the Margins' encourages practitioners to look for and include those who might not normally be heard due to discriminating and oppressive practices. Part B provides practical steps to walk through the planning, conduct and analysis phases of an evaluation. The process is participatory and contributes to capacity development, learning and empowerment of participants and stakeholders alike to produce outcomes with a lasting impact. The Guide is being utilized by UN Women and NGO's globally and will be published on the UN Women website at the end of 2017. Contact the authors to discuss training and support

Punishing Local Incumbents for the Local Economy

After decennia of research on economic voting, it is now established that the state of the economy affects voting behaviour. Nevertheless, this conclusion is the result of a focus on predominantly national-level economies and national-level elections. In this paper, we show that at a local level as well, mechanisms of accountability linked to the economy are at work. The local economic context affected voting behaviour in the 2012 Belgian municipal elections, with a stronger increase of unemployment rates in their municipality significantly decreasing the probability that voters choose an incumbent party. Additionally, we observe that voters are not opportunistically voting for incumbents who lower tax rates. Instead, voters seem to be holding local incumbents accountable for local economic conditions. We hence conclude that voters care about economic outcomes, not about what specific policies are implemented to reach these outcomes

Examining Protein Localization via Fluorescence Microscopy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Twenty-seven years ago, Saccharomyces cerevisiae became the first eukaryote to have its full genome sequenced, thus leading to the discovery that 30% of genes related to human diseases are orthologous to those in S. cerevisiae. Since then, 75% of the proteome has had its localization classified, and we sought to fill the remaining gaps of knowledge by identifying the localization of three proteins: Fsh3, Gid10, and Ade13, which function as a serine hydrolase, ubiquitin ligase, and adenylosuccinate lyase, respectively. To visualize cellular localization, we used a C-terminal GFP tagging strategy and subsequent fluorescence microscopy. Through colocalization analyses, we identified the cellular localization of Ade13 to be mitochondrial while Fsh3 and Gid10 localize to distinct puncta which are predicted to be peroxisomal. Interestingly, we observed that the localization of Gid10 changes depending on the glucose availability in the media. As each investigated yeast protein has human orthologues whose malfunctions lead to diseases in humans, our findings lay important basic foundations for future studies comparing S. cerevisiae and human proteins in conserved processes